Thursday, December 9, 2010

Article Journal Post 15: AMouse

Scientists got the idea for this robot from observing actual mice. They noticed that mice moved with extreme ease and balance. This is in part due to their whiskers. A mouse's whiskers ask as an "extension" on their senses. Scientists decided to apply this to a robot. Researchers from the University of Tokyo and the University of Zurich in Switzerland. They named it the Artificial Mouse or the AMouse. They attached real mouse whiskers to a robot which it uses for navigation along with other sensory inputs. The researchers hope to create an adaptive autonomous robot that can recognize objects, navigate, and store memory.

The Article

Another article on the AMouse


The idea for this robot is very inventive. Mice are able to use their whiskers to achieve greater balance and navigation. It makes sense that this ability could be effectively applied to a robot. The use of the whiskers could be used to create a robot that could navigate completely autonomously. Also a robot that can recognize objects and remember things would be very useful. The article also mentions that eh robot could be used for "repair work in tight places, detecting hazardous glass, [and] exploring confined surroundings." This would be very useful. However the robot still need a lot of development before it is ready for such everyday use.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Gears and Speed

1-2. see chart
3. i) Real world error.
ii) see chart
iii) To calculate the average speed
4. see chart
5. it only has a gear ration of 1 so it doesn't tell us anything.
6. you would be excluding the robot traveled before the back wheels hit the front line.
7-14. see chart
15. i) 18.64
ii) 52.28
iii) no
16. i) 51.77
ii) 52.28
iii) yes
17. i) hypothesis B
ii) The predicted value for hypothesis B matched the actual speed on the chart
iii) yes, all you have to do is disprove it in one instance and its incorrect.
iv) no,simply proving that it works once does not prove that it works all the time.
v) B
18-21. see chart
22. i) 51.77
ii) 18.61
iii) no
23. i) 18.64
ii) 18.61
iii) yes
24. i) B
ii) The predicted value for hypothesis B matched the actual speed on the chart both times
iii) still yes, all you had to do was disprove it in one instance and its incorrect.
iv) no,simply proving that it works more than once does not prove that it works all the time.
v) B because it is the only one that works and it has been accurate so far
25. We tested a robot with the same size gears then tested a robot with smaller than larger gears. We then compared the speeds for the different gear robots with the predicted values for the theories. Theory B was very close to actual speed each time so we support hypothesis b.
26. i) b
ii) a
iii) directly
iv) directly
27. (36/3)*(16/16)=(x/3)*(18/6) x=12 cm
28. 1.5*1= x*(8/24) x=4.5 NO
29. 9*(1)=15*(36/x) x=60

Get in Gear

1ft/2s
1. yes, it did
2. When the motor had more power it moved the wheels forward faster
3. If we put on a smaller gear there will be more wheel rotations per one turn of the large gear.
4. 2ft/1s which is faster than the 1ft/1s before
5. .5ft/1s. it was slower
6. Increase the motor power or swap the second gear to a smaller gear.
7. Decrease the motor power or swap the first gear to a smaller gear.
8. motor
9. i) the gears are the same size so it will move at the same speed
ii) much slower because the gear on the wheel is larger so there will be less rotations of it per rotation of the smaller motor gear
iii) it will increase or decrease the number of rotations per rotation of the gear on the motor.
iv) if the gears are both the same size, it will go the same speed. it the wheel gear is smaller, it will go faster. If the motor gear is larger, it will go slower.
10. i) When the motor rotated, it rotated the gear on the axis. This gear rotated the gear on the wheel. This gear rotated the wheel. However the gear on the wheel was smaller than the gear on the axis so it rotated more times. This in turn rotated the wheel more than before, therefore covering more distance.
ii) It works same as i but instead of being smaller, it was larger so it rotated less times and covered less distance.
iii) the formula assumes that for every rotation of the motor, the wheel is rotating the same. Therefore it assumes that the gear sizes are the same. It will not work if you have different sized gears.
11. i) So the smaller gear on the wheel and the largest gear on the motor
ii) large wheel small motor
iii) large wheel small motor
iv)large motor small wheel
12. different gears would work better for speed vs strength.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Field of View

1. i) Yes they follow a gourd like pattern
ii) it detects near and far
2. i) 60 cm
ii) directly in front
3. i) yes, about 35cm
ii) yes, it will avoid it
4. 2cm
5. 10cm
6. 1:5
7. i) It follows the same pattern, its just smaller
ii) Its smaller
iii) yes
8. i) every 1 cm on the paper represents 5 cm in real life
ii) 4.4 cm
iii) 11.5 cm
9. i) directly in front
ii) it was 12 cm from the front of the sensor on the graph paper
iii) 60 cm
iv) 62 cm directly in front of the sensor
10. i) it gets smaller and then wider in the middle
ii) 50cm
iii) it needs to use different sensor applications to detect something father away rather than closer and visa-versa because it takes different power reading are needed to detect things at different distances, just like our eyes shift.
11. It sent out a noise which spread out in a circular patter and then began to fade out when it sent out a second, louder, noise which also spread out in a circular pattern and then faded out.
12. First you need to draw a line on the floor. Then place the robot with the ultrasonic sensor on the front of the line. Get a can like object. Place it on the other end of the line. Slowly begin to inch it forward until you get a steady reading on the sensor. mark down that pint. Then use a yard stick to measure out every 10 cm on the line up to your point. Take your can and put it to the right of the 10 cm point. slowly inch it back toward the line until you get a reading. Do the same for the left side of the line. Then repeat the steps for every 10 cm point up to your original point. Finally find the scale between the actual distance and the distance on the graph paper. Use this scale to graph all of your points.
13. i) 52 cm directly in front
ii) at the 40 cm mark the point are about 31cm apart
14. i) 2:25
ii) at 170 cm directly in front
iii)at 100 cm the points are about 115 cm apart
iv) no
15. i) 62cm
ii) .0018 s
iii) .0018 s
iv) .0036 s
v) .0019 s one way, .0037 s total
vi) Its quite fast.